President concerned about high rate of traffic accidents

While deeply concerned about the high traffic accident rate, especially involving motorcycles, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono called for a comprehensive solution to the problem.

The president made the statement after opening a Land Transportation Safety Week at the Indonesia in Miniature Park (TMII) in East Jakarta on Monday.

In the company of his wife, Madame Ani Yudhoyono, Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso, Transportation Minister Hatta Rajasa, State Minister for State Enterprises Sugiharto, State Minister for Administrative Reforms Taufik Effendi, and Research and Technology Minister Kusmayanto Kadiman, the head of state also called for declared the socialization of the use of safety helmets by elementary school students.

While deeply concerned about the high traffic accident rate, especially involving motorcycles, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono called for a comprehensive solution to the problem.

The president made the statement after opening a Land Transportation Safety Week at the Indonesia in Miniature Park (TMII) in East Jakarta on Monday.

In the company of his wife, Madame Ani Yudhoyono, Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso, Transportation Minister Hatta Rajasa, State Minister for State Enterprises Sugiharto, State Minister for Administrative Reforms Taufik Effendi, and Research and Technology Minister Kusmayanto Kadiman, the head of state also called for declared the socialization of the use of safety helmets by elementary school students.

Yudhoyono told some 800 Jakarta elementary students that the number of people killed in traffic accidents in Indonesia was higher than soldiers killed in the battle field.

The president also noted that most of traffic accident victims are young men in their productive age who were expected to become the backbone and breadwinners of their fammily.

He added that the traffic accidents also have an indirect adverse effect on economic activities.

Meanwhile, Transportation Minister Hatta Rajasa said that according to the United Nations data, around one million people had been killed in traffic accidents worldwide in 2004, while 50 million others injured.

And in Indonesia in the same period, people were killed in 11,000 of the total of 20,000 traffic accidents.

The UN data also indicated that material loss caused by traffic accidents in Indonesia reached 2.17 percent of the country`s gross domestic product.

According to Hatta, the high rate of traffice accidents in the country was the result of the constantly increasing number of people having a motorcycle, while at the same time violation of traffic regulations also increased.

The UN predicted that unless special and effective measures have been taken, people killed in traffic accidents will significantly increase by 2020, and may even exceed the number people who succumbed to infectious diseases the country.

Meanwhile, President Yudhoyono also took the opportunity to hold a dialog with the elementary school students.

The president ordered the students to remind their parents, brothers and sisters to obey traffic regulations while driving or riding on a motor vehicle.

“Tell your parents, brothers and sisters to wear a helment and obey traffic regulations when riding a motorcycle,” the president reminded the students